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• Loving as Jesus loved
• Ministering as Jesus ministered
• Leading as Jesus led
To choose the life is to choose His life. Jesus chose His life.
Because we come out of a divine nature, which chooses to be
divine, we must choose to be divine, to be of God, to be one
with God, loving and living as he loves and lives. . . . Man
cannot originate this life; it must be shown him, and he must
choose it. . . . We are not and cannot become true sons without our will willing his will, our doing following his making.
He was not the Son of God because he could not help it, but
because he willed to be.
— G e org e M ac D on a l d

Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part
of you into something different than it was before. . . . Each of
us at that moment is progressing to one state or another.
— C . S. L e w i s

The ills of the church and of the individual almost totally
derive from the simple failure to just do what Jesus told us to
do in the Great Commission. That is what it means to choose
the life. There is no excuse whatsoever for not doing it, and
every rationalization is simply a wound to our own soul, an
injury to our group, and an insult to the Christ who told us
what to do.
— Da l l a s W i l l a r d

Bill Hull’s book Choose the Life exists to assist the motivated disciple in
entering into a more profound way of thinking and living. That way is
the pattern of life Jesus modeled and then called every interested person
to follow. It is a life grounded in humility, characterized by submission,
obedience, suffering, and the joys of exaltation. It is the life that transforms its adherents and penetrates the strongest resistance.
Choose the Life challenges traditional thinking about what it means
to be a Christian; it rebuilds the gospel from the disciple up. It asks what
is wrong with the gospel taught in contemporary Western culture and
suggests some changes in the way it is communicated by the church. It
then calls upon each person to rethink what it means to be a follower
of Jesus.
A Disciple’s Guide to Choose the Life is designed to lead disciples
in a ten-week course through Choose the Life. However, it is more
than simply a reading guide. It presents the ideas in Choose the Life
so as to provoke a disciple’s thinking toward the application of these
truths, which produces in him a faith hospitable to healthy spiritual
growth — a faith that embraces discipleship.

disciples, who have likewise decided to choose the life.
The “Community” is composed of (optimally) two to six disciples
being led through this ten-week exploration of Choose the Life.
Participants in the Community will have agreed to make time
to perform the daily assignments as directed by the Guide. They have
agreed to pray daily for the other members of their Community and
keep whatever is shared at their “Community Meeting” in complete
confidence (unless express permission to disclose a specific matter is
given by all involved). They will attend and fully participate in each
weekly Community Meeting.

Its Process

Change is a process. Events can change people, but most often transformation is a process that takes time. Most studies on change agree
that acquiring a new idea and putting it into practice so that it becomes
permanent requires three months. This would be the minimum time
required. The ten weeks to finish the Guide provide solid opportunity for
significant transformation. The process employed by the Guide includes:
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Reading the Scripture together
Reading a common philosophy of the Christian experience
Journaling insights, questions, and prayers
Discussion over material that has already been studied, prayed
over, and reflected upon
Helping each other keep one’s commitment to God
Helping each other break free of areas of defeat and bondage
A common commitment to apply what God has impressed on
each member
A common commitment to impact those with whom members
have contact

the leader must provide a venue and time for this interaction. For
this reason, it is suggested that some time during the weekly session
the leader divide the large group into smaller groups (mimicking
the two-to-six-member Community group) for the purpose of more
intimately discussing the issues presented in the week’s session. It
is reported that after experiencing successive weeks with the same
members of this smaller discussion group, individuals previously not
participants in a small group program have desired to continue in just
such a program.
While the authors believe that the most effective and efficient
means of leading individuals to healthy spiritual transformation is in
the context of a smaller Community group, we do acknowledge that
the larger group setting may be the only means currently available to a
church’s leadership whereby the biblical truths taught in Choose the Life
are likely to be made available. We believe most strongly that although
the form of instruction is important, the function is what must be
preserved: verum supremus vultus (truth above form).

Its Product

Learning studies demonstrate the importance of application. The most
relevant question a teacher can ask is, “Are my students learning?”
According to a leading learning researcher, people remember:
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Ten percent of what they read
Twenty percent of what they hear
Thirty percent of what they see
Fifty percent of what they see and hear
Seventy percent of what they say
Ninety-five percent of what they teach someone else3

experienced in the reality of ministry) on groups that do not answer the
challenge to reach beyond themselves.
Christ was a man for others; disciples, then, are to be people for
others. It is only in losing ourselves in the mission of loving others that
we live in balance and experience the joy that Christ has promised. This
is the faith that embraces discipleship. This is the life that cultivates
Christlikeness, the only life of faith worthy enough to justify our calling upon others to choose the life.

Choose the Life, introducing each week’s core thought, key
ideas, and concepts. These materials must be available to
each member at least one week prior to the first Community
Meeting.
This brings us to the second order of business: when and where the
Community will meet.

Calendar

The members of the Community need to establish when and where the
Community will have its weekly meetings. Bear in mind that it will
require about ninety minutes from start to finish to accomplish all that
is to be done at the Community Meeting. What matters most in the
time set for these meetings is that all of the members are able to make
this accommodation. As you will learn in the course of this journey, the
commitment to Community is essential to your own personal transformation. Therefore, it is imperative that all members be present and able
to contribute each time the Community meets.
In selecting the location of your meeting, choose a site that will
allow for confidential conversation, ease of access, and the fewest possible
interruptions.

Week 1
Your First Community Meeting
In preparation for this meeting, all Community members will have read
Dallas Willard’s foreword (pages 6–8) and preface, “A Conversation
Starter” (pages 9–14), from Choose the Life and have written their
answers to each of the questions posed in the Guide for the first week’s
Community Meeting.
Questions
1. When you were a child, to what were you highly committed?
Describe what that commitment entailed and how it affected your
commitments as an adult.

2. Dallas Willard cites three things vital to spiritual growth (pages
6–7). Discuss each one and evaluate its place in your present
experience.

3. What does Bonhoeffer mean by “cheap grace” (page 10)? Do you
think “cheap grace” is a problem in your life, faith community, or
church? How is it manifested?

Week Two
Day One
Prayer
Dear Lord, help me to be dissatisfied with my current ways of being
“successful” in accomplishing Your calling in my life. Begin now to
develop in me a taste for Your ways.
Today’s Reading
Choose the Life, chapter 1 (pages 15–16)
Question
What were the signs that indicated to the author that something was
“not working,” that something was wrong?

Reflection
What has been the greatest motivator for change in your life? Why was
it so motivating for you?

Day Two
Prayer
Lord, today help me to be very conscious of how I conduct myself. Help
me to see if I exhibit character traits that those who know Jesus well
would recognize.
Today’s Reading
Choose the Life, chapter 1 (page 17, paragraphs 1–4)
Question
What caused the author to want to change? What were the factors that
were causing the despair the author was feeling?

Day Three
Prayer
Lord, help me to admit my failure in following You. Help me to gain a
greater understanding of Your love and acceptance of me as I seek to be
transformed into the disciple You’ve called me to be.
Today’s Reading
Choose the Life, chapter 1 (page 17, paragraph 5, through page 18, paragraph 2)
Questions
1. What caused the “plague” to lift?

2. What did the author mean when he told his congregation that he
intended to “evangelism them”?

Day Four
Prayer
Lord, help me to change my understanding of following You so that I
really act like the disciple You describe in the Sermon on the Mount.
Today’s Reading
Choose the Life, chapter 1 (page 18, paragraph 3, through page 19, paragraph 3)
Questions
1. According to the author, what is the “problem” and what is the
“solution”?

2. What does a disciple look like (according to Matthew 5–7)?

Reflection
How (and about what) have you been practicing “sin management”?

Day Five
Prayer
Lord, teach me how to minister as You minister and lead others the
way You lead.
Today’s Reading
Choose the Life, chapter 1 (page 19, paragraph 4, through page 21)
Question
What do you suppose the author means when he states that “Jesus was
irrelevant and unnecessary to His culture”?

Reflection
What are the obstacles that keep you from sincerely saying to God,
“Lord, I’m not afraid of any change You want to make in my life”? List
the obstacles and list what fear they cause you to have.

Day Six
In preparation for this week’s meeting, you will have read chapter 1,
“How I Got to This Point,” in Choose the Life and have answered the
reading questions for each day.
As a group, answer the following questions.
Questions
1. What did the author mean when he used the metaphor of “flyfishing on ice” to represent his struggles while serving as senior
pastor at a “successful” church?

2. What are the differences between believing in Jesus and believing
what Jesus believed (pages 19–20)?